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In an excerpt from the latest Halo Bulletin, Frank O' Conner answered many Q/A Questions some regarding the future of Halo. Take a look: Who is your favorite character? - AStreamOfCream In the entire history of the franchise? It would be a tossup between Guilty Spark and Foe Hammer. The former because he’s an interesting, pivotal and possibly misunderstood – and in my opinion – sympathetic character. The latter because a lot of people think she’s a spaceship and not a callsign. And just as many who think she has an especially lyrical and overwrought surname. What is your favorite weapon, generally speaking? The one I’ve used most consistently across the series is the Plasma Pistol – as a secondary to strip shields or stop vehicles. As a utility weapon, either the H3 BR or the H4 DMR. If you could change one thing about the Master Chief, what would it be? - xLG Atomix I would change his rank, or better still, people’s understanding of his rank. The Master Chief Petty Officer is a naval rank that is the highest attainable for enlisted men. It demands respect but demonstrates worth, ability and hard work. All things that you can assume are true of someone in that role. And the role demands such respect that you’ll even see senior commissioned officers defer to, or at least acknowledge that rank in decision making and general behavior. What is your favorite game type in Halo 4? - YouTube Unyshek SWAT. Pancakes or whiskey? Tough choice, I know. - aVeryEasyTarget A little whiskey in the syrup might actually taste decent. Then you can have EVERYTHING. What is your favorite Halo book? - HurryingCandy They are all my favorites. But I am going to see the Hobbit on Saturday with Joe Staten, so Contact Harvest today. Why did the UNSC stick to projectiles as their main form of weaponry, or even now when ONI has developed lasers? - Seeeyeare The truth is that creating a distinctive human flair, sound, silhouette and look for the universe is important to the nature and identity of the canon, and the canonical reason would be that projectiles are something you can build easily and cheaply in almost any human-friendly environment. And we don’t shy away from the fact that we have a massive military industrial complex at play. Halo actually takes place at the cusp of a more energy-efficient shift in our tech – and you have these contrasts – FTL travel and standard caseless ammo. Frankly speaking it is like that because it feels good. What's your favorite thing? - Jeff McRae Right now my Xbox One. I went on vacation and got annoyed because I couldn’t command the TV to do my bidding with my voice. If I wanted to join 343 Industries someday, what would you recommend I study? - RJCCJ Where’s your passion? If you’re literally a human blank slate that can do anything and has no feels, be an engineer (Computer Science) because you’ll get paid slightly more when you start and you’re harder to hire and in greater demand for more varied jobs. If you’re not a carte blanche, pick the thing you care most about, or the thing you’re best at. Did Beamish survive the attack on Corbulo Academy using his mighty mop? - DHG Siul S249 He survived a massive Slipspace jump outside of a cryotube, with nothing legal to eat. He’ll survive a glassing. In fact, being Scottish, he’s probably already been glassed. What is your favorite moment in Halo, be it in novels, games or any kind of media? You haven’t seen it yet. But I have. Are you going to cameo in the Halo TV series like you did in Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn? - Stckrboy My agent has a phone. Have your people call my people. From your practical experience, what are real and meaningful steps an industry outsider can take to work his way into PR / Marketing for game development studios? - FatalFord There are a ton of perfectly good college courses dealing with marketing, media and public relations – and knowing the subject matter helps. Can I haz Mister Chief armor for my Spartan in Halo 4 or Halo Xbox One? - JDHarbs I don’t think you really want to be victimized in matchmaking like that. What’s your favorite coffee and how do you flavor it? If you don't like coffee, maybe pop or beer? - Nfected Spartan That coffee that civets eat and then poop. Look it up. It’s a real thing. Any chance of an in-game ranking system in Halo Xbox One? - FroZeN 4S There’s always a chance. Have you made a potato cannon and witnessed the glorious, awesome power of the flying potato? - TI Inspire Yes. And a lot of bows and arrows when I was a kid. I shot Gregor Fergie in the eye. Just like his mum warned us I would. What inspired you to work in the gaming industry, and what did you do to get involved in it? - aThomasKid Playing games inspired me. What is your favorite game besides Halo? When I’m feeling nostalgic? Looping on Coleco Vision. What do you exactly do at 343 industries? I do everything imprecisely. I work on story, franchise, canon, licensing, even marketing. A bit of everything. If you were to play in a 4-player Free-For-All with Dersky, Neighbor, and Bravo, how many kills would you win by? - xBrutaIity I think if it were FFA SWAT I would get some kills, period. I would get Steak Dinnered though, for sure. Frankie, would you give me a high five? - halo mahkyla High five! After creating your first Halo as a brand new studio and taking on one of the largest franchises, what would you say was the biggest success and failure with Halo 4? -Austin7934 Like any new studio, we had plenty of failures. Our biggest success will be accepting them and learning from them. I think that our growing understanding of the audience and ourselves and the new platform will stand us in good stead. There has been a ton of feedback, both positive and negative, in regards to the direction that Halo 4's multiplayer took the franchise. What feedback have you taken to heart the most, and what changes have 343 made to their multiplayer philosophy and approach to reflect said feedback? - a Polish Korean I think that’s probably the most important question for our community, and I think we’ll start answering it honestly and directly in due time. So I won’t touch on philosophy here, other than to say you’ll see a lot of those learnings when we start showing things. There’s no semantic dance I can do here that will satisfy every segment of our audience – there are just too many pitfalls and inter-community disagreements on what makes Halo MP great. So we will be open and receptive and honest with ourselves. Was the inclusion of cosmetic elements (armor variants, weapon skins, etc.) in Halo 4's DLC seen as a success? How do you think you can improve DLC more broadly? Yes, but everything can be done better, more simply or reinvented in unexpected ways. I will leave it at that. Has there been any discussion in regards to the merit of returning to a veto style voting system as opposed to sticking with the voting style from Reach / Halo 4? I will say that dedicated servers and cloud technology will give us options that expand upon that premise and the former rigidity of matchmaking, period. What are your favorite pizza toppings? - halo mahkyla Pepperoni, jalapenos and sometimes red onion. But I like all of them. Even Hawaiian. Does the Master Chief wear boxers or briefs? - FearlessNoba Is this a comic-con panel? Are there any major Easter eggs left undiscovered in Halo 4? - Snoop Rocket Major? No. Minor, yes. What qualities, in your opinion, make an ideal lover? Gentleness. And rough, calloused hands, like a Glaswegian U-Boat cleaner. Objective or slayer? - Ozzy Onya A2Z Me? Slayer. Especially once the rubber band physics from CE vanished. Rocketing my body into the base on Blood Gulch after exiting a moving Warthog with the flag…. From one baldy to another, what's your favorite part about being bald? - TashiGAF Consistency. And shaving it in the car with a Bic. And being mistaken for Mister Clean. Will Halo: Spartan Assault take advantage of the Xbox One impulse triggers? - FireGhost90 Not particularly, but the next Halo FPS will. What are you planning to do with the Arbiter and that of the Sangheili, in both the story and gameplay? - kaine nar rano Can’t talk about it. But a lot. Back before Halo was a big franchise and Halo: Combat Evolved was being developed, how much of the universe did you have planned? - Kokaza118 Bits and pieces. The reality of developing a game is that you have to delete whole swathes of ideas – and those have a knock on effect. I know roughly what the universe looks like years from now, but not precisely how we’ll get there, because the game will define that, not a roadmap. Did you expect Halo to become such a giant cultural phenomenon that I feel is approaching a level of Star Wars? When I start getting that George Lucas type money, we’ll talk. But it is a weighty responsibility even now. Did you initially plan to develop Halo 2 and the rest of the trilogy? The game was developed like any new franchise, with the hope that it would be loved and the possibility there could be another. And the humility to know that most new franchises don’t make it. How did you balance enemies and weapons for gameplay and story? For instance, Promethean Knights use highly advanced weaponry capable of disintegrating and piercing through armored marines. They can however die by salvos of M118 bullets. In gameplay, the Sangheili have a quicker and stronger melee than Knights sometimes. What do you comment on it? - Erickyboo One simple example is using hardlight as projectiles that can compare with human projectiles. But really the answer is a massive chart and years of conversations and comparisons. And some of the differences are designed to be aesthetic as well as balanced for gameplay. The Master Chief, Commander Palmer, Fireteam Majestic, and Spartan-IVs in the Halo 4 Campaign all use full armor sets, yet we see Spartan-IVs in War Games usually wearing a mix-and-match combo. Do Spartans use different armor pieces in the canon? If so, how often do they do so? - OompaMyLoompaa They technically choose pieces that are suitable for both the mission at hand and their own personal fighting style. How was Hesduros left out of the loop, to the point where it is still very religious and adopted its own traditions and technologies? - M0aHerder You will definitely find out more about intra-Covenant disputes and religious differences in the future. Are there any driving ideas and inspirations behind the redesign of the Covenant look? The changing nature of their relationship with the galaxy and the reclaiming of their own identity outside of the previous nature of the Covenant drive a lot of that, as well of course as game tech, fidelity and modernization. Will we see more development and "humanization" of the Covenant in the future, similar to what they received in Halo 2/3? Yes and more “alienization” too. Will the nearly 500 year gap of the Halo timeline be further explored? There is a lot of content that can be back there, from initial interplanetary conflicts to early Human exploration and into the golden age of colonization, that can add significance to the story. Potentially, yes. Will there be any clarification of the events of Halo 3, such as how many MAC platforms were still up, how much of the Home Fleet was intact, or how Arby N' Friends got back to Earth? Those items may not be a focus for the next game. But they can be dealt with elsewhere. What is the chance of seeing more books like Evolutions? Reasonable. Humanity's post war status looks quite promising considering how close they were to being wiped out. What is Humanity's status during Halo 4? Colonies? Rebuilding efforts? Is the Infinity and Spartan-IV Program taking any attention away from other important issues? They are taking the initiative. Trying to keep the Covenant off balance. The Spartan-IV program is essential to that mission. I have wanted to ask this question for ages. Do you wear a kilt? - SergeantGUNZ117 At weddings, sometimes. SOURCE

BS Angel Talking about Flood (some medals and how to obtain them in this mode), Forward Unto Dawn, the map Abandon and much more! Read below for more details Source: http://blogs.halo.xbox.com/Headlines/post/2012/10/03/The-Halo-Bulletin-10312-.aspx Gold Halo 4 wallpaper, made by the amazing minolta1034 486 days ago at E3 2011, we introduced Halo 4 to the world, lifting the veil on our closely-guarded secret with a heart-pounding trailer featuring the return of the Master Chief.* Exactly 365 days later, at E3 2012, we gave media and fans alike their first true taste of the game with a Campaign demo and never-before-seen enemy face. Er, I mean race. Now the countdown really begins, because Halo 4 launches in a mere 34 days. I measure time in Halo Bulletins and according to my calendar, there are only five left – one of which is this one. Let’s just say the number of topics still left to discuss when compared to the number of Bulletins slated to be published before launch do not match up. Yes, there’s still a lot you don’t know. What, you didn’t think we’d tell you everything, did you?... Speaking of things you may not know, Halo 4 recently went gold (!!1!one!!1!). Bonnie Ross, General Manager of 343 Industries to some and Lady Boss to others, wrote up her thoughts about both that particular milestone and also the evolution of our studio. You’ll get to read her part-insightful, part-reflective words later in this Bulletin but for now, how about we take a deep dive into a topic we haven’t had a chance to properly discuss yet, like Halo 4’s brand new Flood mode? Flood Brand spankin’ new Flood screenshot 1! Flood is the spiritual successor to Infection, a fan-favorite game type from Halo 3 and Reach. Our goal was to recreate it and push the mode to be new and different from previous versions. As both War Games and Spartan Ops fit within the fiction of the UNSC Infinity, we wanted to use Halo fiction in this mode too, which led to us to create the Flood form in Multiplayer. Flood-converted humans are much faster and focus on melee attacks, so they were a natural fit for Infection’s successor. Halo 4’s Flood mode is a round-based, ten-player game. It is a true asymmetric experience with the added twist of dynamic teams; this really changes things up as each game is different, especially in the incredibly intense and high-action final seconds. At the beginning of each round, two players spawn as Flood forms and eight players spawn as Survivors. Survivors are standard Spartans equipped with shotguns and magnums, while Flood move very quickly and can only use a melee attack. When a Survivor gets killed by a Flood, the Survivor will convert and respawn as a Flood. The round ends if a Survivor makes it to 3:00 or if all players are converted to Flood. One of the things we concentrated on for War Games was establishing player roles in Multiplayer, so we put a great deal of attention into being the King, Flag carrier, Grif, etc. Being the final Survivor is another role we focused on, and it’s a very intense experience having nine other Flood rush at you. Some (and by some, I of course mean David Ellis) would even say it’s poo-inducing. Brand spankin’ new Flood screenshot 2! We went through several iterations of tuning settings, mostly around getting the Flood to feel right in the sandbox and making the Flood experience noticeably different than the Survivor experience. To ensure the Flood’s gameplay had a unique feel, we honed in on the following elements: The Flood Character Model A unique character model for both first and third-person. The Claw A special melee weapon tuned just for the Flood. Flood Armor Effect A special effect that trails behind Flood characters. Flood Screen Effect A first-person screen effect that shows the haunted view of a Flood. Dynamic Music When playing as the Flood or final Survivor, dynamic music plays in the background to intensify the experience. Flood Gameplay Tuning Flood move faster, react differently to bullets, and have specially tuned armor abilities, the core of which is an enhanced Flood Thrust Pack. The Floodsassination How could we not?! The biggest challenges when designing this mode were getting the Survivor vs. Flood balance just right, keeping the experience interesting and dynamic (whether it’s two Flood vs. eight Survivors or nine Flood vs. one Survivor), and building a system that made initial-round spawning more consistent. Where we landed, for the lattermost thing in particular is that players will not spawn randomly as Flood or Survivors at the beginning of a match. Instead, your initial spawn is based on previous rounds. Flood features an exclusive set of medals that can only be earned by playing this particular game mode, and it also has its own set of custom game options. The former is detailed below. Click here to view the medals and what you have to do to get them: http://blogs.halo.xb...tin-10312-.aspx Brand spankin’ new Flood screenshot 3! Here’s a sneak peek of our planned Flood settings for launch. Round Length 3:00 minutes (Survivor win or all Spartans converted) • Number of Rounds - 3 • Players - 10 Players o 2 Spawn as Alpha per round o 8 Spawn as Survivors For Lead Designer Kevin Franklin, the best part of the design process has been seeing players who have never tried Infection before try out Flood. The overwhelming sentiment from those players has been that it’s a great high-action, high-intensity experience with tons of close quarter combat and close calls. We expect you to tell us what you think, come November 6. Abandon https://waypointprod...0/4/abandon.jpg Abandon screenshot ABANDON DESCRIPTION: On the remote world of Erebus VII, at the very edge of human-occupied space, an ONI research facility which was once teaming with researchers now lies eerily vacant. Although the hostility of this world had been initially considered by its team leaders, it is tragically clear that a great many ‘things’ had simply not been taken into account. Abandon is a mysteriously abandoned ONI research station on a hostile alien planet. Initial surveys of this area were bold and promising, but it quickly became clear that these reports were far more hubris than logic. From the start, the theme for this map was constructed around the story of an ONI research team that mysteriously disappeared. We wanted to leave some story breadcrumbs that helped to imply that something dramatic occurred in this location. We wanted the map to make the player wonder, “What the hell happened here?” Unlike most Halo maps, there is a lot of overtly alien strangeness right in the player’s face. The creepiness and storytelling are simple and clear but doesn’t conflict with the game play. Early on in the development cycle for this map, there was a diverse array of visual ideas and ways to tell the story of this ominous place. Along the way, we had to consolidate this collection into a more concise statement that not only supported the theme but also felt appropriate to the Halo franchise. There was a lot of discussion about how we wanted the environment to feel menacing and forbidding. At one point, the map was a disparate arrangement of flora and fauna and we had to ask the questions, “Does all of this work together?” and “Does all of this support Halo Multiplayer?” When the answers were no, we made the hard call to change direction. Some of our favorite organisms that didn’t make the cut were lovingly known as meat loops, muscle humps, gas sacks, smokers, and momma trees. (Don’t ask). https://waypointprod...onceptart-2.jpg Abandon concept art Abandon had three distinct iterations. The first was the balls-to-the-wall alien greenhouse version. There was a dead monster-like creature on this map that you could use as a ramp, and there was a story that went along with it—something along the lines of: the monster attacked, killed the scientists, and then died from injuries it sustained. There were numerous subplots and supporting elements scattered around the map and in the skybox. The next iteration featured smaller animals trapped in containers underneath the map as the reason for the science team’s ‘disappearance,’ and early concepts show that the place was pretty badly assaulted. This version represented the first paring pass that reined the environment into a simpler and more believable statement of the original theme and cropped out some of the unnecessary components (we wanted to get back to what we really liked about the original concept art). The final iteration was an even tighter trimming of things that weren’t needed or weren’t working. The building’s interior looks relatively pristine compared to where it was originally, which is definitely to its advantage from a playability perspective, because it provides a stark difference between inside the structures and the wild flora that grows outside it. Gameplay-wise, Abandon plays much like the visual theme: claustrophobic and frantic, with danger lurking around every corner. It is a small map with lots of close quarters fighting; however, mid-range and long-range fights can be found in select locations. If you’re a fan of mid-range engagements, stick to the natural side of the map until you pick up your initial ordnance. Then you can go in, guns blazing. Oh, one last thing about this map. A Halo 4 concept artist wanted me to pass along his recommended strategy: Wear a diaper. Assuming you aren’t already, that is… Halo 4 Soundtrack Remix Contest If you have a thing for either music or awesome prizes, you definitely want to check out the just-announced-today Halo 4 Soundtrack Remix Contest. The competition starts October 3 and will run through October 29, with prizes awarded to the most original and creative tracks. Participants will have access to samples of Awakening, To Galaxy, and Revival from the Halo 4 Soundtrack, allowing for a wide range of potential remix styles and musical genres. For full contest submission guidelines and rules, visit: Halo4Remix.com. Entries will be judged by composer Neil Davidge of Massive Attack, Halo 4 audio director Sotaro Tojima and electronic musicians Sander Van Doorn and CASPA, based on originality, creativity, and musicality. Winners will be announced on November 16. Prizes for the Halo 4 Fan Remix Contest will vary per region and are subject to change: USA Grand Prize • Samsung Series 7 Laptop • Halo 4 Limited Edition Xbox 360 320GB Console • Halo 4 Trigger Stereo Headset • Complete Collection of Official Halo Soundtracks First Prize • Halo 4 Limited Edition Xbox 360 320GB Console • Halo 4 Trigger Stereo Headset • Complete Collection of Official Halo Soundtracks Second Prize • Halo 4 Trigger Stereo Headset • Halo 4 Official Soundtrack Canada Grand Prize • Halo 4 Limited Edition Xbox 360 320GB Console • Halo 4 Trigger Stereo Headset • Complete Collection of Official Halo Soundtracks • 12+1 Month Halo 4 Xbox LIVE Gold Membership First Prize • Halo 4 Limited Edition Xbox 360 320GB Console • 12+1 Month Halo 4 Xbox LIVE Gold Membership Second Prize • Xbox 360 Halo 4 Limited Edition Wireless Controller • Halo 4 Game Mexico Grand Prize • Halo 4 Limited Edition Xbox 360 320GB Console • Halo 4 Trigger Stereo Headset • Complete Collection of Official Halo Soundtracks First Prize • Halo 4 Trigger Stereo Headset • Complete Collection of Official Halo Soundtracks Second Prize • Halo 4 Trigger Stereo Headset UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Spain, Netherlands Grand Prize (1 per market, 6 in total) • Samsung Series 5 Laptop • Samsung 2.1 Wireless Audio Dock • Halo 4 Limited Edition Xbox 360 320GB Console • Halo 4 Trigger Stereo Headset • Complete Collection of Official Halo Soundtracks Runner Up Prize (1 per market, 6 in total) • Halo 4 Limited Edition Xbox 360 320GB Console • Halo 4 Trigger Stereo Headset • Complete Collection of Official Halo Soundtracks Australia Grand Prize • Halo 4 Limited Edition Xbox 360 320GB Console • Halo 4 Trigger Stereo Headset • Complete Collection of Official Halo Soundtracks • 12+1 Month Halo 4 Xbox LIVE Gold Membership First Prize • Halo 4 Limited Edition Xbox 360 320GB Console • 12+1 Month Halo 4 Xbox LIVE Gold Membership Second Prize • Xbox 360 Halo 4 Limited Edition Wireless Controller • Halo 4 Game Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn https://waypointprod...duntodawn-2.jpg We’ve been counting down the days to Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn with a series of short vignettes. That time is over though, because the live-action digital series that takes you back to the beginning of the human and Covenant war, leading into the events of Halo 4 starts on Friday. Yes, I’m talking about this Friday. The Friday that is only two days away… The first episode is just the beginning of this story and like any good story, it has to introduce the world and the characters to you in the right way before we get to the blowing shi – er stuff – up. This series is about great characters as well as great big explosions, so settle in for the whole ride…there will be plenty of all of the above to go around. There are some hints in Part I about important ideas in Halo’s future, so if you’ve been paying attention for a while, there’s a lot in there for your eyes only. That said, this show has also been created to help introduce many fans to the fiction of the universe (there are lots of people who don’t follow every date and character detail in the books or even the main Campaign stories – blasphemy, I know) and answers to questions like “So how did this galaxy-spanning war with a mysterious alien collective kick off, anyway?” We hope you love it, and we hope it’s as exciting a part of the big ramp-up to Halo 4 as we meant it to be! Office of Halo Intelligence: Part 11 https://waypointprod...wallpaper-2.jpg Bonnie Ross, General Manager for 343 Industries, has been with the studio since the beginning. Her insight, especially as it relates to the journey that was the development of Halo 4, provides a unique perspective on both the completion of our first full title and also the changes the studio has seen since its conception. Enjoy the words from someone who has an intimate relationship with both our game and the people that comprise our studio. 34(3) days… and counting Jessica asked me to write a section about us hitting gold last week. When we all celebrated last Thursday night, there was joy, relief, and pride. There was celebratory drinking, and champagne was poured on people’s heads, but mainly there was a lot of reminiscing about the path we took over the last few years. So I figured I’d write about that journey to the gold (disc) at the end of the Halo 4 rainbow. Along that journey, it is easy to be critical, even overly critical of every move and every mistake. When you get to the end, something washes over you (could be champagne over the head from a fellow 343er, Josh) that makes you look back at the journey with a little more forgiveness, Vaseline on the lens, maybe even a little regret that this part of our journey is over. Year of the Forerunner: In 2008, we weren’t working on Halo 4 yet because Bungie was working on ODST and Reach. So as a small 343 team, we had the luxury of a year to just think about the universe and the technology. Where did we want to go next? We had controversial discussions about the Forerunners and their origins. Should they always be a mystery or should we open up that Pandora’s Box? As you already know, we opened that box and Frank and the team set to help define the future fiction, the Forerunner backstory and characters that would ultimately become the Prometheans, the Didact and other inhabitants of Halo 4. While we weren’t thinking about the exact Halo 4 story back then, we were working on high-level themes for Halo 4 and the overall saga. We were thinking about Chief and Cortana, and we were thinking about new enemies and new threats, specifically Forerunner in nature. We chose the acclaimed science fiction novelist Greg Bear to write a trilogy dealing with elements of that story. As Greg’s first novel in that trilogy came out in 2010, he had a lot of questions before we had answers: what did the Prometheans look like? What did the living, breathing Forerunner civilization feel like? So between 2008 and 2010 our artists, designers, and writers met repeatedly with Bear to give him character sketches, talk about physics, shapes and characters that would ultimately take their first tentative steps in his book before coming to life on Requiem. Ghetto Halo: In the middle of 2009, we started working on the real design of Halo 4 and the not inconsiderable task of staffing it. Our rapidly growing team was crammed in a really small section of this building in Redmond Town Center (a mall). We were sitting two to three people in closet-sized offices meant for one, or camping out on the couch in the hallway. When people came onboard or interviewed, we would routinely get the comment, “Wow, really, this is Halo? I would think you guys would work in a better space than this.” We pretended like we wanted it to be that way – so uncool that it was cool, but in reality we were Halo wannabes and our company knew it and treated us as such. That all changed with the unsanitary sacrifice of our office savior Kenneth Scott. Kenneth, who fell for the “this space is just temporary while our real space is under repair” line during the interview process, joined our team as the Art Director. When the reality of the bad space set in, Kenneth started doing phone interviews for potential candidates in the hallway because there were no private meeting spaces. When it got too noisy in hallway, Kenneth moved his office to the men’s bathroom instituting a do not flush policy during phone interviews. Some of our best talent was recruited from the men’s bathroom. It was my own wailing and lamentation over Kenneth’s bathroom interviews that finally got my manager to approve us moving to a new space. When we moved into a much improved space, we started working on the Halo 4 prototype. How do you prototype Halo when you’ve never even built Halo before? Halo is already a beautifully balanced sandbox and we wanted to add more toys – and maybe some more sand. As a new team, we were in an awkward and unfortunate situation in that not only did we need to prototype how to take Halo forward; we needed to figure out how to build Halo in the first place. Halo? In 2010 we started working on what we call “vertical slice” which is really just a representative section of how we imagine the final game will look, feel and play. Going through that prototype process, we made the obvious decision that before we could add new things to the Halo recipe, we first needed to fully understand the existing ingredients. Could we make a level that feels and plays like Halo? Could this team build Halo? Typically with a vertical slice, you’re supposed to showcase the graphical art bar as well as a segment of gameplay. Our artists were working on a lot of art, but in 2010, David Berger and the development team were in the beginning of overhauling the engine so that in the future our artists could get their art in the game without compromising their vision. For the vertical slice, the mission we chose to build was part of our second mission, Requiem. We submitted it to our user research testing and it tested well. Users thought it was Halo, and they liked it. We at 343, as small a step as that was, celebrated a great milestone – and a kind of game design Hippocratic Oath:“First, do no harm.” When Kiki and the team presented the slice to the execs, it was met with straight faces with people saying this just looks like Halo, this just plays like Halo. “Yeah, I know”, I replied proudly, “Isn’t that great? 343 can build Halo, this is huge.” The execs sat with straight faces repeating, “This just plays like Halo.” I walked my team from the room. “Was that good or bad?”, Kiki asked. “Um, good. I think they ate something bad for lunch.” To be fair to the execs, they didn’t want to see the inside of the sausage making factory, they just wanted to know this team could not only build Halo, but take Halo forward. They wanted to see the “Wow.” It was kind of a crazy time in the studio as we had a bunch of “wow” on paper, but really nothing in the game yet. Coming out of vertical slice, the team heard the message that it wasn’t enough. While it was in the plan to take that “wow” from paper to game, we were just getting started. Bungie wasn’t built in a day, and neither was 343. Year of the Wow: In my opinion, 2011 was our hardest year. The team might argue that 2012 was the toughest, as people put in such long days and endless weekends. But in 2012, we knew what we were building and the stress came from wondering if we would we have enough time to get everything we wanted into the game. In 2011, we knew the game we wanted to build, but the “wow” and the magic was slow in coming together. Josh and the team had their design work cut out for them. In 2011, the focus was sandbox. As you know, Halo has had (mostly) the same enemies in the sandbox for the last 10 years. For Halo 4, we had new enemies, new weapons, and new vehicles all ready to go into the sandbox. But as you also know, Halo’s sandbox is delicately balanced, so adding new stuff while ensuring it’s fun and properly thought-out, is easier said than done. For the first part of 2011 the fun wasn’t coming together. Then one magical day, I think it was sunny (a statistical anomaly in Seattle), Josh wandered over to me with a gleam in his eye – and explained that he’d just got done playing for a few hours and it was fun, it was really fun, and he thought we had it. And so it happened. Over the next few months the game started to come together. Daily playtests went from Chris and the producer team begging for players to people vying for an empty seat every day at 4:00. There is never a specific date when you exit preproduction as different areas move out of preproduction early and others later. But in Fall of 2011, every part was out of preproduction and into full production. We could play through the entire game, and for the most part it was fun. We had one mission, Dawn, where Kenneth, Neill and the art team had set their visual target and polished it to a glittering finish, and it was beautiful. The multiplayer maps were fun, the new modes were fun. Spartan Ops was starting to come together. In Fall of 2011, we could see the light even after we recovered from our exit from preproduction party. Year of the Dragon: 2012 was a very long work week that never ended. In January of 2012 we had all of the pieces of the game in some form of done or undone, and all that was left was the long hours to put all of the pieces together and polish the game to perfection. Or as close to it as time and physics permitted. From February on, there would be something new to look at or play every week. The cinematics team started dropping in all of their work and the story came to life. Every time you played the game it was new, different and better. It was a pretty amazing time to be part of 343, part of Halo 4. Everyone on the team worked incredibly long hours – basically for the entire year of 2012. Phil Spencer, the VP of Microsoft Studios told me our building smelled like human. Good human, I’m sure. In one of the take-home tests where we were supposed to play Campaign Co-op, I played the first three missions with business guy Matt. Matt wanted to explore and ensure we looked at every inch of the first three missions. It took us hours and hours to trek through three missions playing Co-op on Normal. I’ve explored every rock, plant, structure, vehicle, and vista in the first three missions. At one point in Requiem, Matt called for me to come over and look at this amazing view (literally a Sparth concept piece brought to life), and as we stood together looking over the edge, I had flashbacks of childhood family vacation pictures at the Grand Canyon – it was that awe-inspiringly beautiful. Of course, the Grand Canyon isn’t filled with inverted megastructures made of massy hardlight, but you get the idea. In between vista viewings, we also shot a few things. Last week before we hit gold, I was playing a Spartan Ops take-home on Legendary (so not a Legendary player, for the record). I got in a mission with Tajeen, Kiki, and artist Chris. In between expletives from getting annihilated by another pack of alien scum bearing Fuel Rod Canons, I found myself laughing giddily, waiting to respawn into some impossible new situation to “help” my team. It was fun, it was invigorating, and you could almost see the gold through the plasma mortars. I started this journey with huge passion for Halo, and that hasn’t changed. I ended this journey with huge passion and respect for 343 and our people. Halo 4 is a result of the energy, blood, sweat, tears and the distinct human smell of the people at 343. At the end of the day, at the end of the year, at the end of the journey, it is about the people, the team. It has been an honor to work alongside such an amazingly talented and passionate group of people. So is this the end of the journey, or is it just the beginning? I hope it is the beginning for us at 343. I hope we did the fans proud. No regrets, but sentimental. There is no crying in Halo, but I dare you not to by the time the credits roll. Thank you for bearing with us. Thank you for letting us try our hardest. I hope we earn it. b There is no possible way I can end this on a better note than Bonnie, so I do believe that is my cue to wrap this sucker up. Try your hand at the remix contest, check out the first episode of Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn this Friday, and I’ll see you here next week, same time, same place, but with new stuff to talk about. Until then… View full article